


Digimon: Converge

by FictionForFun



Category: Digimon - All Media Types
Genre: Action, Action/Adventure, Adventure, Digital World, Friendship, It Undermines Individual Agency, Pillomon (Digimon), We Don’t Do Chosen Ones In This Story, digimon - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 21:40:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29923209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FictionForFun/pseuds/FictionForFun
Summary: When fifteen-year-old American boy Leith Crowther emigrates to Tokyo, Japan, things start to get crazy fast - and not just because he hasn’t mastered chopsticks yet. As Leith stumbles his way through life in a new country, he and his friends unwittingly become  tied up in the affairs of another world when its denizens start appearing in his. The group must solve the mystery of these emergences, protect their home from these superpowerful monsters, and get their homework in on time in order to protect the secret they all share. Welcome to Tokyo, where the streets are clean and the rest is chaos.This is going to be a long running digimon adventure in the spirit of the anime but in the style of yours truly. It will feature a huge ensemble cast and many diverse digimon. The concepts of the ordinary digidestined or “Tamer,” the wielders of spirits, and the fusion generals will blend together in a story that mixes and matches the best parts of canon with some reasonable additions of my own. If you wanted to see everything you love about digimon (and some new themes you’ve always wanted to see explored), this is the story for you.
Kudos: 1





	1. Episode 1: Up In The Air (Part 1 of 2)

**Author's Note:**

> When a digimon will not be explicitly named in the text (like in this first chapter), I will leave a footnote at the bottom of the chapter. If you want to know what is being described, simply scroll down to the bottom of this page. Alternatively, if you would rather preserve the mystery, or you can tell from the description alone, there is no need to do this. I hope this system serves both the reader who wants to preserve the mood and the reader who wants a clearer mental picture. 
> 
> Thank you for joining me on the newest Digimon epic adventure. Away!

“Riham?”

“ _Yeah?”_

The young man swallowed a lump in his throat. The news he had to share wasn’t good, and being so fresh he was still struggling to process it himself. Leith’s whole world had just been ripped away a half hour earlier over the dinner table. Now he had retreated to the sanctity of his bedroom. “Listen. I’m moving away.”

_“Where are you going?”_

Typical Riham. Nothing ever seemed to faze her, very much unlike Leith. He was already doing his breath exercises just to stay on topic and, hopefully, prevent anomalies in his speech from showing his emotions over the phone. Leith figured that his friend didn’t have the context to understand just what was really happening because he hadn’t yet said aloud how far he was going and that _this_ was why she was so calm. “Dad’s got a new position in Tokyo. Japan.”

“ _So you’re moving to Japan?”_ Leith sat on his rolling chair and nodded forlornly, unconsciously having forgotten that nobody was in his room with him. _“Dude, that is so cool!”_

The boy perked up a bit, confused. That was not the reaction he had expected or thought appropriate. “Excuse me?”

_“I’ve always wanted to go to Japan!”_

“Oh, right, forgot - you’re one of those adventure-seeking, worldly types.”

“ _You don’t wanna go?”_

“You know me. I like to experience the world from the comfort of my couch.” 

It finally seemed like the girl on the other side of the phone was starting to understand, going by her shift in tone. _“Look, Leith, you know I get it. I immigrated to a new country, too. I’m not gonna lie: it’s hard-”_

“-Yeah, no kidding!” the boy pessimistically snapped. He lowered his phone long enough to cover up an exasperated sigh. “I don’t know the local language except some of the obvious ones; they probably have a different school system, so I have no idea what a fifteen-year-old even does for that; I don’t know how I can get another music project together because, again, I don’t speak the freakin’ language-”

_“-Why can’t we keep doing our thing?”_ A pause. _“You’re not selling your stuff, are you?”_

“No! No, God, no. Maybe some of it, the stuff I don’t feel like hauling across the globe. But I’m keeping all the important stuff.” 

_“Well, there you go. We’ll Skype or something, work online. People do it.”_

Leith actually chuffed at that. “People still Skype?”

“‘ _Or something!’”_ Riham reiterated. _“We could probably do it. How hard can it be?”_

“Maybe,” was the boy’s noncommittal answer. The girl had a point, though. Even just the two of them had made darn fine music in Leith’s biased opinion. Sure, his partner’s conservative family didn’t care for the idea of their daughter tossing the hijab or making sacrilegious heavy rock music, but the beauty of it was that there was no need for them to know. It was just another of several secrets she had from them. With the boy on strings, the girl on percussion, and the pair of them sharing vocal parts, their shared project became the bond that had kept them together. The bond was only three years young but very strong. _Maybe that’s why she’s not freaked out,_ Leith reasoned.

The rebellious Iraqi immigrant and the creative Boston native were a match made in metalhead heaven (or, as their subculture liked to call it, Hell). Leith’s personal style matched his taste, that being black sneakers, dark worn jeans, and the black T-shirt of whichever band he wanted to proudly proclaim that day. His shoulder-length curly brown hair was fitting as well. His thinly framed glasses and skinny build were not; they suggested the slightly nerdy side of his personality. These latter things did not add to his looks in his own opinion, which was something he thought he sorely needed. _Good thing on the internet nobody cares how you look - just your sound and your logo._

“OK, so you solved one problem.”

“ _When do you leave?”_

“Undetermined, but probably really, really soon. Just gotta figure out the apartment. Dad keeps flipping between wanting a little luxury and saving money.”

_“Yeah, that sounds like him.”_

“Lucky he’s not getting the profits from my stuff, but I probably have to drop the price to sell the excess fast. Speaking of which-” The boy bent down to the floor and picked up one of his guitar pedals. “What do you think about twenty bucks American for a slightly used Metal Zone?”

“ _I think you can’t pay me to take that piece of crap. Throw it away.”_

“No! Jesus. Maybe I’ll donate it to charity or something.”

_“Well, listen, let’s hang out some more before you go. Maybe we can jam a bit at your place a while.”_

“That sounds pretty good right about now.”

* * *

The plane - or rather, _planes_ due to the layover in Honolulu, Hawaii - were as cramped and uncomfortable as the boy had remembered them on the few times in his past he had boarded them. He didn’t like planes. Take away their necessity for travel and there was nothing good about planes, the boy thought. _They’re disease factories, and no one is checking vaccination statuses at security. Pilots are overworked and under rested. There’s a dividing wall between the rich pricks flying slightly-more-legroom section and the no-fats-allowed section._ It filled Leith with a pang of guilt that he sat in the former for the second leg. _Altitudes make my nose bleed. I’m stuck in this capsule for a cumulative total of around 20 hours._

“Whoa!” Too late. Leith tried to sidestep his fellow passenger in the aisle of the second plane, but his reflexes were shot by now. He was sleepy, lethargic, and overall not paying attention to his surroundings. “Hey, hey, hey, you OK?” The thud of the collision was followed by a louder thud that involved the second body hitting the floor. Leith wasn’t a big person, but the other person definitely wasn’t either, meaning the other person went straight down. The impact caused a few gasps and one yelp from surrounding passengers who then began to mutter to each other in many different languages.

Leith regretted it even more as he noticed just who he had plowed into: the boy was probably somewhere around his own age, but he was clearly Japanese. Going by the face alone would have been a presumption, he knew, but the phrase adorning that T-shirt was in a language he couldn’t read well yet. As a flight attendant rushed over to help, Leith could picture the headline already: _White Passenger Pushes Down Teenage Japanese Student in Plane Seating Dispute._ Obviously the right thing to do was to be nice and apologetic, but now he thought he had to really ham it up since eyes were on him.

The flight attendant didn’t take to that well. As Leith knelt and extended one arm toward the fallen boy, the flight attendant tried to shoo him off in English, Japanese, and one other language the boy couldn’t have guessed. This was when the Japanese boy joined in the commotion. To make matters worse, Leith couldn’t make heads or tails of what he was calling to the flight attendant from his place on the floor, only that he was talking real fast in his native tongue. The other boy’s hands were held out straight. Defensive? Wait... no. He was waving the attendant off. Right? Maybe. Murmurs started to quiet down. The attendant backed off a bit yet still seemed to be watching carefully. 

_Right, maybe now they’ll actually let me do the nice thing,_ Leith hoped.

The second time Leith extended a hand, it was accepted. One boy pulled. The other rose. Now the problem was that, as far as Leith knew, there was no way to actually _talk_ to the person he had just negligently flattened like a pancake. Not until... inspiration! He’d remembered the word he was searching for! _“Gamen’nasai!”_ Well, he was close. 

The other person seemed to get the picture, because after he brushed himself off he grinned, shrugged, and waved Leith off in a ‘don’t worry about it’ sort of gesture. _Should I bow? I’m supposed to bow now, right?_ The boy started to sweat again. _Is it rude to bow at a wrong time? No, that sounds weird... maybe better to do it too much than not enough._ Problem was, the moment had just about passed. Was it too late to matter? _It will be pretty soon!_ Leith concluded. So the boy did it. He put both his hands by his side and inclined himself just slightly.

The Japanese kid did not return the gesture, which made Leith’s stomach sink. _I messed up. I messed up bad. Gotta abort._ Leith had hoped to turn heel and abandon his trip to the lavatory, but he was intercepted by another extended arm. A handshake? _Oh, thank God!_ That was something Leith could do. _Firm grip. Eye contact._ Those were things the boy had to remind himself of no matter who was on the other side of his handshake.

“Don’t worry so much. Tourists will be fine.” The accent was as heavy as Leith had expected, but this person still used English with little difficulty. 

After recovering from being floored, Leith shook his head around a bit and sullenly admitted, “I’m not a tourist.”

“Oh, _gun gaki?_ ”

“I’m sorry, I don’t speak Japanese. I’m moving, though, so the point is it’s kind of a big deal if I can’t bow right.”

“And that you don’t know Japanese!” 

“You’re tellin’ me.” OK, this was good. Small talk. No hard feelings. 

“Come sit with me. Let’s talk. My window seat is empty.”

Leith’s first instinct was ‘no.’ However, he wondered if it would be rude to refuse the invitation even from a stranger. Maybe it would be awkward in any case, since Leith did just clock him. He did owe him something. So Leith made an ‘after you’ gesture and followed the other boy to his coach seat. 

“My name is Sadatoshi Tsuchiya. _Hajimemashite Tsuchiya Sadatoshi desu.”_ Leith could tell that the Japanese repetition had been slowed down and carefully enunciated for his benefit.

“Look, man, I’m from Boston. I’m gonna try, but you’ll forgive me if I can’t say your name five times fast.” The American boy took a breath before trying his best at a Japanese introduction. _“Watashi wa,_ Le- uh, Crowther Leith _desu._ ”

Sadatoshi furrowed his brow and scoffed. “‘Riisu Kurausa,’” is what the name sounded like to Leith reflected back at him in a heavy Japanese accent. “And _my_ name is harder than that?”

“Hey, I’m proud of my name! Never had to share it with another kid in the class, that’s for sure.” In an effort to stave off uncomfortable silence and simultaneously investigate what he perceived as odd behavior, Leith probed at the elephant in his room. “You’re being awful friendly with the _gaijin_ who just steamrolled you.” He was hoping to elicit an explanation for that.

“Forgive me. I wanted a little more practice with my English... and you looked scared. You don’t have to stay.”

“I don't mind it. But, dude, your English is fine. Sounds fine to me, anyway.”

“Well, I hope so. I’m coming home from a term of study in Los Angeles. It helped. Very interesting experience.”

“So you live in the capital itself?” Conversation by now seemed to flow more naturally than before, partly because Leith was finally able to relax a little bit. He was even starting to forget he was on a plane. 

“That’s right.”

“Well, I’m almost glad I ran into you there.” Leith leaned forward a bit. “Sounds like you know the feeling - fish out of water and all that. Except I bet you had the benefit of time to study before you got on your plane.”

“Didn’t you?”

“Not enough. East coast schools teach you about Europe, not Asia.”

“Hmm.” That boy, Sadatoshi, himself leaned back and appeared to ponder something with one hand on his chin. “You can ask me whatever you like. Maybe a friendly stranger is just what you need?”

The American boy perked up. His smile was small but genuine, though he took a minute to consider the offer, too. “Hey, let me just go find my family and tell ‘em not to worry. They probably wonder why I’ve been in the bathroom for...” Leith checked a bulky black digital watch on his left wrist just to be pedantic. “...12 minutes.”

“Sure. Family comes first.”

“That, and...” The boy was in some hurry to step out of the seat and into his aisle. “...I never actually got to the bathroom. So.”

* * *

_Boom!_

“Huh?”

The sound of a missile hitting one engine of the plane jolted Leith awake in his seat, or so he thought going by its sheer volume alone as well as the accompanying flash. Even with his many-times popped ears he was still sensitive to thunder, and he was much closer to it now than usual. The plane’s copilot was quick to interject some calming commentary. “ _Your attention, ladies and gentlemen, if you’ll look to your right you’ll be able to see a beautiful display of lightning midair. On the off chance the plane gets struck by lightning, don’t panic. We may lose power in the cabin for a little while, but the storm poses no danger to the plane. As a precautionary measure we are diverting north to get a little farther from it. At this time the captain has turned on the Fasten Seatbelt sign, so please remain in your seats until the sign is turned off again. Thank you.”_

The message was spoken first in Japanese but repeated in English. On the copilot’s advice, the boy peered out his airplane window. It was a very black night, illuminated more by dazzling lightning strikes. Unfortunately, it was also night time more than 16 hours ago, since before Leith had even set foot on this plane, if his watch was right. _Hello, jet lag, my old friend,_ the boy hummed in his own head with a bitter humor. Glancing at his left and right, it seemed that his two parents were both either still snoozing or just giving it their best effort. It looked like most of his neighbors were still napping, really. _I bet you anything coach got a jolt, though,_ the boy speculated, _Probably harder to sleep when you can’t lift your legs or recline._

But the boy was awake now, and it was doubtful that would change. _That was a solid eight hours sleep just now. The island will probably be under us soon._ As dead tired as the boy was, he the noise wouldn’t let him lay his head back and relax - and not just the thunder, either. His mother, between himself and the window, was snoring up a - well, a storm. _Nope. That’s not gonna work for me._

“ _Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. At this time we are preparing for descent into Narita International Airport. The captain kindly asks that you begin to finish your business and please turn off all electronics. Please make sure your seat is in the upright locked position, and your tray tables are folded up into place. Thank you for flying with-“_

_Sounds like music is out._ Heavy metal wasn’t going to drown out that snoring if his phone had to be off. After Leith got to switching off his beloved electronics, he started peering out the window. It was, at least, quite a lovely sight - if a bit frightening to be so close to a lightning storm. Particularly freaky? _Crack!_ One lightning bolt of the barrage struck the plane wing. Leith recoiled and blinked rapidly in response to the flash. “Jesus!” Leith gripped his arm rests for safety and... nothing else happened. The plane didn’t even jostle. The captain’s earlier announcement was apparently correct about lighting on a plane. _Right... be kinda stupid if a pilot didn’t know what he was talking about, I guess._

Another roar of thunder. No lightning struck a wing that time, but the bolt was nonetheless frighteningly close. It was this time that Leith thought the flash was messing with his eyes because in the new flash there was some sort of dark spot in his vision. The image was gone before he could have even begun putting it together, but by his sensory memory alone he thought it resembled some sort of... _A... crocodile?_ _Sitting on the wing?_ The boy blinked rapidly and rubbed his eyes for a good, long time. Yet another nearby strike lit the sky up similarly but with no silhouette this time. _Yeah, that’s what I thought._

And for a long while it was almost serene, watching that disaster unfold from a safe shelter. The turbulence was nuts, but Leith knew that, too, was little threat to an aircraft. Still, _Where’s that Sadatoshi kid? I need to ask him how to say, “Get me off this thing!”_ Oh, if only he could get up and stretch his legs, but given the circumstances - attempting to land in a thunderstorm - that seemed unlikely. 

“ _Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. We’re still getting some digital interference in our instruments up here in the cockpit, so we remind you to make sure_ all _electronic devices are powered off. Thank you, and welcome to Tokyo.”_ The tone of the copilot’s voice was clear: he was not thrilled at all about the passenger who wasn’t following the rules. Leith was inclined to agree.

_What kind of douche bag endangers a plane for a selfie?_ He even looked around, knowing it unlikely to actually find the guilty party but at least giving it a shot. He didn’t think he could actually get them to put away their whatever, yet he thought he’d take a little pleasure in at least giving them a well-deserved glare. Others around him seemed to agree. _Alright. Screw this. Wake me when we’re on the ground._

With that mess established firmly as someone else’s business, the tired traveler actually found his sleepiness coming back to him. His yawn was a pitiful response to a very sudden onset of tiredness. Despite the noise around him inside the plane and out, he was just... done. Done with the ride, done with packing, studying, yard sales, and annoying passengers. Screw the noise, he thought, he was gonna relax no matter how much effort that would take. He reclined his seat as much as a plane seat would allow for, stretched his legs out far as space limitations would let him, and tried to focus on the noise of the plane engines themselves instead of the thunder, the snoring, the murmurs, and the copilot’s next announcement.

_“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. At this time flight attendants will be going through the aisles. Due to strong electronic interference, they’re going to ask you to verify that all of your electronic devices are switched completely off. Our landing will be delayed until...”_

* * *

_...Thud!_

_“_ Gimme a break...” As the boy came to yet again, he was extremely disappointed to learn that sound did not belong to the impact of the plane’s wheels on the ground. By the look of things out the window, the storm had mostly passed, and the aircraft was still circling. _Do I even wanna know how little sleep I just got?_ The weary traveler resisted checking his watch for several seconds before finally giving in. He had been out for... _Two hours?_ The boy started to sit up straight then, finally alert. _Something’s not right if it takes that long to land a plane._ As the boy started peering about first class, it became apparent other people had the same idea about sleeping the delay away. The only person he could see awake was himself. “Creepy.” Also notable, Leith thought: the seatbelt sign was turned off. He muttered, “Jesus, they really expect us to be here a while if they don’t need us to sit down.” 

A suspicious pit began to open in the boy’s stomach, but he knew himself; his tendency to exaggerate the probability of improbable possibilities was showing again. _The plane’s fine, right? It’s gotta be. These things are more advanced than they might look, and if something’s wrong it’s gotta be fixable._

It was at this point that the boy felt a faint drip running down his face from... his nose. _Oh, that’s not good._ Momentarily distracted from his desire to get on the ground, Leith touched the stream of liquid just under his nose, dabbed it with a finger. Unfortunately, he lacked a better material on hand to check what the fluid was. _Alright, now the million dollar question: runny nose or blood?_ There wasn’t really a preferable answer to that, but one answer involved getting up and wandering the plane with a bloody face. Unfortunately the droplet on Leith’s finger was red. “Oh, that’s bad.” Just another reason altitudes stunk.

The boy was courteous as he could be in the cramped space as he attempted to stand and waddle his way into the aisle without jostling either his parents on either wide or him or falling into the people across from his seat. Fortunately, it appeared all of them were out like lights. Having a better view now, his section of the plane was evidently made up entirely of sleepyheads except for himself. The boy tried to tread at a polite volume from there, but more important to him at that moment was getting his unfortunately damp hands on some toilet paper. The best he could do in the moment was lean his head down and cover his face with his hands, which would need a good wash real soon. 

Leith rushed down the alley as un-suspiciously as he could to not scare any passengers or attendants. That wasn’t a problem he needed just now. Unfortunately he wasn’t really watching where he was going - he couldn’t, really - and he ended up tripping over some unseen obstruction. “Ah, crap!” With only mild carpet burn on his elbows, he glanced back to see that what he tripped on was just about his worst nightmare: a flight attendant. “Crap, crap! I’m sorry!” He pleaded, “I didn’t mean that!” But the attendant laying flat on the ground was completely unresponsive to his frantic apologies. This wasn’t like that Sadatoshi kid, who had kept his feet; this woman was flat on the floor and not moving a step. “No, _no_ , I’m going straight to prison...” Maybe not, though, if he acted responsibly quickly. “Hey! Hey, help! This flight attendant’s hurt!” he shouted at the top of his lungs. “There’s always a doctor on these things, isn’t there? Help!”

No one came. Not even with more calls, more shouting, more frantic shouts. “Hey!” Come to think of it... no one else even noticed. No one was even turning around. No one was even... moving. “Wait...” Leith first tried checking for breath by holding his hand under the unconscious attendant’s nose. “She’s... breathing. Normally, even.” So what was wrong? It felt intrusive, but the boy then proceeded to try holding his hand under the nose of a different passenger. “Him, too. Hey! Moron! Wake up!” Worried, Leith even tried shaking the man in his seat, but he wouldn’t awaken. Both were undoubtedly alive, but no one was conscious. No one except him, anyway, not that he could tell. 

“Someone! Something’s wrong, get up!” He shouted that because he didn’t think he could be the only one still awake. There had to be more if there was one, he hoped. 

“Who’s there?” Was the distant but very welcome response to Leith’s calls. The voice was unmistakably a male one, and it was a contender for the deepest voice the boy had ever heard. So there _was_ someone else awake on this plane! The running footsteps coming his way, however, were not as heavy as the young traveler had expected. Despite that, each step created a sort of metallic _clang._ Metal boots? Leith couldn’t really be sure until the stranger opened first class’ curtain to show himself. He was... he was very far from Leith’s expectations.

This wasn’t a person. This was a... _What do you even call that thing?_ The creature was as small as its step suggested, only about half the boy’s height. And yet Leith knew he better not pick a fight with it. _Is it oxygen deprivation? I can’t- no way I lost_ that _much blood!_ Leith would have described the animal as a lizard, but a bipedal one. It couldn’t be some wild animal, though, because it was clad in actual garments that only an intelligent mind could make. They weren’t a shirt and pants, either, but militaristic body armor, a soldier’s reinforced helmet, gauntlets, and exactly the metallic boots the boy had thought he detected. Since its mouth was open to breathe heavier from exertion, he caught that all its teeth were needle-sharps the claws that poked out of the gauntlets equally so. Clearly the creature fit some sort of militaristic theme, because even its very skin - scales, rather - were painted like urban digital camouflage. Equally fitting, the claws and teeth weren’t even the most dangerous thing about the creature. That quality went to the rifle he held not quite horizontally but stiffly and ready to win on the draw. Even though it was apparently shrunk down for the lizard’s stature, Leith had played enough shooters to know an M16 when he saw one[1].

“What-?” What was Leith even supposed to ask? ‘What are you?’ ‘Who are you?’ ‘How did you get past TSA?’ In the end he ended up on one, but it took him a long moment of perplexity and unease to get there. “What’s going on?”

Apparently it didn’t matter. Leith was ignored anyway. “Sit down!” That was an order alright, and Leith thought it was best for his health to take it. The only available space was the aisle, but the kid compliantly sat cross-legged away from the downed attendant, even putting his hands on his head in surrender without being asked - his bloody, bloody hands. 

“Can I cover my nose here?”

“Yes.” The armed animal seemed to be paying Leith little attention as he knelt by the downed flight attendant. Leith gladly used one hand to catch his flow, but the other stayed where it was. The demand, “What the _hell_ is going on here? Don’t hurt her,” sounded a little muffled and distorted with his nose covered, but Leith demanded it anyway.

“Don’t give me orders.” The creature’s voice was eerily steady and even-keele. It held two of its claws near the woman’s throat, which made the boy’s heart beat thrice as fast. But what could he do in his position? Fortunately, a need for immediate action didn’t arise. What the lizard was really up to was checking, “Still alive.” At this point the armed lizard disregarded her and fixed a glare on Leith. The boy noticed that its claw came to rest on the rifle’s trigger just then. “Now... _you.”_ He didn’t raise the gun, but for Leith he didn’t even need to. The effect was good enough. “Tell me now - where am I? What are you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [1] Commandramon


	2. Episode 1: Up In The Air (Part 2 of 2)

“Tell me now - where am I? What are you?”

Leith blinked his eyes dumbly at the question. What kind of question was that anyway? How could this... the thing, how could it not know where it was? _Answering might be good for my health, though,_ the kid reasoned.

“What are you?” That time the demand wasn’t in such an even voice.

“I’m a person!” Was that actually the question? Leith wasn’t sure, so he added more detail. “I mean... I’m a human. I’m a hominid. _Homo sapiens sapiens.”_

“And where am I?”

“I don’t freakin’ know!” The boy cried, “We’re, like... over Japan, I think. Like 30,000 feet over it? I forget. Uh, on a _plane._ Do you know what a plane is? Uh, do you know what Japan is?” Toward the end Leith spoke very low and slow. Even if this was possibly a hallucination induced by oxygen deprivation, he didn’t want to frustrate the soldier-lizard with too many possibly unknown words. The soldier didn’t really acknowledge any of those things, though, which made Leith believe those things were indeed unfamiliar. The lizard just narrowed its eyes.

“Why is everyone asleep but you?”

Now it was Leith’s time to be curious. He had assumed this creature would know something about that. The boy was getting more stressed by the second, but he knew minding his manners was the key to his continuing existence. “I don’t know.” Leith curiously fixed his gaze on the lizard from behind one hand that covered his nose, which was just starting to naturally clot despite the altitude. If the lizard wasn’t related to that... what was it doing? _No. Dumb question. Get on task!_ The boy’s internal shout at himself jolted him. He needed oxygen, and he needed it soon. Once he had it, that lizard should disappear. How long did he have? Two minutes? Ten seconds? _Five minutes without oxygen is brain damage, and everyone else is already unconscious._ “Look, up there- over the seat!” Even though Leith gestured with his eyes, the lizard didn’t look. “I need one of those oxygen masks, like, _now,_ or I’m gonna pass out. Something’s wrong!” 

The creature’s eyes shot open wide. Concern? Sympathy? There wasn’t a lot of time to judge the soldier’s face because when it pointed its gun, Leith turned himself away. It pivoted a hundred and eighty agrees, aimed its M16’s muzzle over one passenger’s seat, and proved that it worked by opening fire. “No, no, stop!” To Leith’s surprise, his desperate shout made the creature stop. “If you poke a hole in this thing, everyone falls and dies!” he scolded his hallucination. But it didn’t matter; his goal was achieved. The impact caused a single oxygen mask to fall and smack a woman passenger (who didn’t stir) in the face. “Oh, god, thank you.”

Leith assumed he had permission to spring up to his feet and grab at the mask, so he did. Fortunately, the soldier let him. _I’m not being selfish for not sharing,_ the boy had to reason as he strapped it to his face, _They say to secure your own mask before someone else’s. It’s because you might pass out before you can get it on someone else, meaning you screwed both yourself and them._ The bag didn’t move, though. Should he be worried? _‘Oxygen is flowing although the bag may not inflate.’ Heard that line enough times._ Leith knew oxygen was flowing because he was breathing it nice and easily. Granted it was all through his mouth and not his blood-clotted nose, but he thought he felt perfectly awake and alert and oxygenated. 

The only problem was that no matter how long he watched the armed lizard creature, it wouldn’t go away. Leith sure tried to make it, too. “You’re not real. You’re not there,” he muttered to himself while focusing on his breathing. “Go away! You’re not supposed to be there!” That time he yelled directly at the soldier, as if willing the hallucination gone would do the job. Lucky for him, it continued its way of forgiving his attitude. _Come to think of it... how did I get this mask?_ Leith looked up above himself at the bullet-ridden ceiling of the seat. _That shouldn’t have happened - a mirage getting me a real mask._

More footsteps. Someone was running toward them, a third person. “Leith!” And the person knew his name, but it was a voice he hardly recognized. He did know it, though: male by pitch and cadence, and its accent couldn’t pronounce his name easily. The boy would have liked the time to tell the voice to stay out of this section of the plane, but the curtain was pulled too quickly. On the other side of it was that Japanese boy around Leith’s age. His name was...

...Leith forgot. So he skipped that part. “Hey, man, tell me I’m not crazy! You see the camo lizard, too, right?” His question was muffled a bit by the mask but came through fine. The other boy just stopped and stared wide-eyed, ignoring Leith’s question. Still, the reaction and the direction of his gaze answered it well enough - they shared the same delusion. Said delusion pivoted rapidly and lifted his gun, to which Leith pleaded, “Dont hurt him!” Apparently there was no danger, because the soldier exercised restraint once again by gently dropping its muzzle once he identified the target. 

“Another one awake,” It muttered.

“Leith, you’re bleeding!” The Japanese boy was quick to notice. 

Leith held out a hand palm-open and called back, “No, no, unrelated. Altitudes,” through his mask. “They don’t work for me.”

During this exchange, the pint-sized lizard didn’t seem to know who to watch. It couldn’t eye both humans because it was between them in the aisle. However, these two humans by now appeared quite definitively not to be threats, and so it composed itself in a slightly more relaxed manner. They were too apparently young and scared. “You - with the long hair.”

“Leith.”

“Leithmon, then.”

“What?” The boy wasn’t sure where the butchery of his name came from there. “No. It’s just- my name’s just Leith.” Leith wasn’t sure why, but this obviously confused the lizard. What was so hard about telling someone your own name? _A lot, apparently,_ the boy had to acknowledge, _I can’t for the life of me remember that guy’s._ OK, this was good, so Leith believed; name exchanges were good. The boy started to gently lower his oxygen mask and gave his nose another test dab with one of his few clean fingers. To his relief, it stayed clean. 

“And I’m- er, Sadatoshi, sir.” 

_I knew it was something like that!_ That Japanese boy was handling this encounter much better than Leith himself had, thought the boy. Obviously it was something of an act, but Sadatoshi was keeping more calm and casual about the whole thing. Leith half-expected him to bow but wasn’t overly surprised that he didn’t. The situation hardly called for such formalities, after all.

“Ah, what do we call you?” 

The creature recoiled a little from Sadatoshi’s name, prompting Leith to wonder what the big deal was. It seemed like it was calculating something inside its head, not sure if it should give its own name in answer. Its eyes darted rapidly between both boys some more, during which time Leith took a seat on the nearest arm rest (after sliding an immobile, unresponsive arm off of it). _Uh-oh. Did we just piss it off somehow?_ But as Leith analyzed its face he wasn’t seeing anger so much as... a bit of fear, uncertainty - the emotions Leith thought he himself was supposed to be feeling right now.

“...Commandramon.”

“Well, it fits,” was the instant wisecrack Leith didn’t have time to think about before acting upon. “Look, so, ah... since we’re not the people who made this a ghost plane, and if _you’re_ not the one who did it-“ The boy paused intentionally there, thinking that the monster might correct him. It stayed stone silent in defiance. “-let’s, uh, call it truce? Maybe we can be buddy-buddies for a bit? Look, man, I like the way you’ve kept your muzzle off me, and I’d _love_ to trust you to keep it that way. But you’re making people nervous.”

The monster - Commandramon, apparently - eyed Leith with an air of suspicion. It eyed Sadatoshi, and Leith’s analysis was obviously right. The other boy was appearing meek and passive for his life. Commandramon weighed his options again with this. “If I help you, you need to help me get home.”

“Done!” Where was home? Didn’t matter. Leith wanted an out, and there it was. “We all wanna go home, but no one can go anywhere while this can is in the air.” And once it wasn’t, the boy figured, he’d just have to cross that bridge when it came up. “So, uh... where is that, anyway? Been meaning to ask for a bit now.”

“Fort Cryption.” Both boys waited for a beat for more explanation, but it didn’t come.

“...Right. OK.”

Sadatoshi was the one who piped up with a way forward from there. “If I may make a suggestion, we should go to the front of the plane. If the pilots are asleep, too-“ 

“-Please don’t put that thought in my head, man.” 

“All I’m saying is the plane can’t land if they’re out!” 

“And the thought’s in my head. Dude, that door isn’t just locked. It’s, like... armored.” Leith pursed his lips. “If they’re out, there’s no way they’ll let us in, and if they’re not- well if they’re not, there’s no way they’ll let _us_ in.” Leith gestured to everyone in their tense trio, emphasizing their obvious unwelcomeness in one of the most secure rooms on the planet. 

Commandramon huffed. “I refuse to be barred from returning home by a simple _door._ We’re going.” 

“It’ll never-” Leith wasn’t in imminent danger of falling, but he did notice himself needing to catch his balance on a seat, else he’d have tipped. That was the moment it hit him. “-wait a second.” He glanced out the window, through which slightly clearer skies let him have a glimpse of the horizon. From there he noticed it wasn’t level in relation to himself. It slanted upward slightly toward the plane’s tail, which could only mean... “Guys, guys, big problem!” 

“We’re tipping?” Sadatoshi also noticed. 

Commandramon spoke, “This vehicle - can it withstand a crash into the ground?”

“Hell no, it can’t!” was Leith’s panicked answer. 

“Then there’s no more to discuss.” Commandramon proceeded then to push straight past the metalhead, knocking him over fully in the process, at a speed that didn’t even seem possible for something with legs that short and a burden that heavy. 

“Wait! Ah, geez.” Sadatoshi and Leith exchanged the same look of concern and silently questioned each other whether they should follow him. It was obvious, though: they had to. “Screw this!” Despite Leith’s verbal protest, he chased Sadatoshi and Commandramon down the aisle at a pace not up to a full sprint but close to it. There were a couple other bodies in the aisle on his way, the lighting was dim, and on some level he wasn’t in much of a rush to get where he was going. _Geez, would have liked to wash off, at least._ It didn’t help his stress that only one nostril worked for breathing in that moment. “At least we’re running downhill!” 

Leith’s blessing became a curse as the aircraft slowly began to dip. The change was quite gradual, but as the flight attendant station passed and the armored door to the cockpit came fast, Leith was the only one who couldn’t stop in time. As his nose bounced off it with a _thunk_ , Sadatoshi proclaimed, “Leith!” worried. 

It left a bloodstain on the portal but, “It’s cool, it’s cool! That’s old blood.” Just for safety he checked his own nose, but he didn’t think it was broken - just throbbing. “Agh, Jesus.” 

“You two get clear of the door!” was what Commandramon commanded at the same moment that it pulled from one of its many little pockets and hideaways in his vest a device about the size of an apple. 

This Leith instantly identified despite looking a bit different from the usual kind, and he protested. “Are you insane? You’re gonna bring us down!” This device was something like a silver circular ball, but one which flattened out a little on two sides to resemble more of a saucer shape. Still, the button on one face made it clear what it was meant to do. 

“Do you have an alternative?” Leith didn’t. He struggled to whip one up, but the plane continued to dip in that second-and-a-half, enough that he now had to flail his arms and subsequently hold onto a cabinet handle in order not to tumble back into that door. The dive still wasn’t sharp enough for rapid acceleration to the ground, but that point was getting awfully close. “Cover your ears!” 

Poor Leith and Sadatoshi didn’t really have that option while they were hanging on to something for balance. Leith tried his best to shove one ear into the corner of a seat and the other into one of his arched shoulders. It had to do. The last warning was Commandramon’s call of _“DCD Bomb!”_ None of the boy’s video games had taught him what the the abbreviation DCD had stood for, but it turned out he was right about the device’s purpose. He watched the giant lizard roll it toward the cockpit door, where just a gentle push and the force of gravity was enough to send it the rest of the way. Both boys turned away. 

Waiting for the device to go off felt like much longer than the four-fifths of a second that it really took. Every fraction of that felt like a much longer interval, if only because Leith wanted the grenade to have already exploded just so he could quit thinking about it. _Will that even knock down the door? Those things are supposed to be unbreachable these days._ Worse than that, what could happen to the plane if a little turbulence bounced the aircraft and the bomb along with- 

_Boom!_ Well, the power of the device was no longer in question! There wasn’t a lot of smoke or particle debris to obscure vision, but there was a can of pop that flew over Leith’s covered head at the speed of a bullet. “Jesus Christ!” At the same time Leith heard a no-doubt similar interjection from across the aisle. When he thought it was safe to poke his head up, he was able to gawk right through the open doorway of the cockpit. This was because that soldier lizard’s little bomb was apparently enough to blow the door right off its frame, hanging only by its top hinge. “Holy...” 

Sadatoshi was equally impressed. “Did he honestly-?” As both boys stood up and peeked out from cover, the angle of the plane jerked and shifted further downward, sending both of the boys stumbling forward and downward. Neither Leith nor Sadatoshi had the presence of mind to grab something which would successfully stop their fall or the balance to resist entirely. “Oh, ohwoa!” Another jerk sealed their fate. The both of them ran straight into the cockpit. 

Leith was first, and he had to brace himself against one of the two chairs to finally halt his own momentum. Sadatoshi was a half-second behind, and the other boy ran himself into the center console, quite mercifully missing any buttons and switches while doing so. Leith asked, “Hey, all good?” 

“I’m OK.” 

Leith and Sadatoshi both had barely enough time to notice that the pilot and copilot were as incapacitated as the rest of the plane before Commandramon ordered, “ _Don’t move.”_ Leith didn’t move. Sadatoshi didn’t move. Commandramon’s voice had gotten suddenly stern - more stern than before, even. It sent a chill up Leith’s spine, and he wasn’t even sure whether he should turn around. But he did, which was how he learned Commandramon was not, in fact, giving that order to either himself or Sadatoshi. The strange lizard’s rifle was raised and level, finger on the trigger. Cowering in a corner behind both boys, the creature whom Commandramon was threatening to shoot was... 

...Whatever it was, it was like Commandramon except... not. It wasn’t human or any normal animal, that was for sure, but it also wasn’t the same kind of thing as the soldier itself. Leith personally struggled to classify it. He might have liked to have called it a sheep, but if sheep were half their normal size and stuffed tightly inside a bright pink pillowcase like a burrito. The sheep’s horns stuck out from the burrito, more like a ram, and so did all four of its legs. Leith didn’t notice the night cap upon its crown until he realized that just looking at the ungodly creature brought water into his eyes and a yawn upon his jaws [1]. “Hey, hey, hey, hey,” he demanded, “You can’t fire a _high power rifle_ on a plane! One bad shot depressurizes us and kills everyone!” 

Commandramon’s brow furrowed. He did not lower his weapon, which meant the other _thing_ didn’t stop stuffing itself into a corner. But he did, mercifully, give Leith a chance. “Explain.” 

Sadatoshi, however, was the one who made the case before Leith spoke. “We are thousands of meters high-“ 

“-Not for long!” the American boy grimly wisecracked. 

“And the atmosphere is thin. Machines on board circulate air that imitates the atmosphere on the ground. If the hull is pierced, the air pressure differential will suck our artificial atmosphere outside and suffocate us all.” Leith had to admit to being a little impressed. It wasn’t that he expected Sadatoshi to be stupid, but the Japanese boy obviously understood the actual physics and danger involved whilst Leith himself only knew that he’d seen it a lot in movies. Suddenly it made sense to him, though that didn’t make him feel better. 

“Hey, hey, speaking of which,” Leith suggested time Sadatoshi, “You wanna consider _maybe_ giving that flight stick a nice little pull?” 

Sadatoshi turned white. He looked to the flight stick in the captain’s chair, followed by Leith, then Commandramon and the oddity, then at the flight stick again. He gulped. “Right. Yes. OK.” Slowly and tentatively, Sadatoshi leaned forward and stretched one arm slightly over the lap of the unconscious captain, the other arm there to brace him from tumbling straight into the wind shield. His hand grabbed onto it, but the boy hesitated to actually manipulate it. He needed a deep breath to make himself move, it seemed. “Gently...” Sadatoshi started by handling the machine with kid gloves, only daring put some force into it when the yoke wouldn’t yield to a tender touch. 

Commandramon ignored both the boys from there. “Did you incapacitate the vehicle’s crew, Pillomon?” But just because Commandramon was ignoring them didn’t mean the boys were ignoring him. Leith knew that he recognized that suffix immediately, ‘mon.’ He reasoned in the moment that it was a title or honorific of the sort that he’d been studying these past months in learning the Japanese language. 

Sadatoshi didn’t let him linger on those thoughts too long. “Pss,” he hissed to get Leith’s attention, “Can you try the radio? Signal the ground?” 

It was Leith’s turn to freeze, and not just because for all he knew pushing the wrong button could shut off the engine or something. He was able to reach the radio no problem because, like the yoke, it was another easily identifiable feature and also because, without consciously realizing it, the American boy no longer had to brace himself against the copilot’s seat to stay on his feet. Sadatoshi was successfully getting the massive machine to gently level off. What really had Leith in a bind was that he had no idea how to _really_ use the machine, how to change the frequency or which one he should even use at a time like this. But the worst part about his assignment. “Yeah, sure. And what do you think I should freaking _tell them?”_

While the boys had their minute of back-and-forth, so did Commandramon and the pillow prisoner. Its voice was strikingly more feminine than any other conscious person in the room when it squealed, “Don’t hurt me!” 

“Don’t make me.” Leith watched and, well, he couldn’t help but notice that out of the two strange creatures before him, only one of them was actually acting aggressive. It wasn’t the sheep, who was trying to make itself small and back itself into that corner while Commandramon pressed. It visibly trembled and wouldn’t open its eyes. 

“Hey!” Leith interjected himself into their conversation, “You, the sheep thing. You don’t look so bad to me. If you wake everyone up you’ll solve our whole problem here.” Leith went on to gesture to the knocked out captain and copilot. “Or at least these two... Hey, hey, hey, _hey!”_

Sadatoshi hastily responded, “Sorry,” to Leith’s panicked stammer and gradually righted the plane again from the incline that he distractedly had let creep in. 

Commandramon seemed to agree with the sentiment at least, but now with Leith’s slightly more diplomatic approach. He stood solid as he more angrily insisted, “Wake them. Now.” 

The frightened prisoner whimpered at a high pitch before agreeing, “OK! OK! Please don’t hurt me!” Somehow, Leith managed to witness an even more spectacular sight after that. Commandramon’s captive... glowed. Its horns in particular were especially bright, but the whole form iridescently radiated a dull green glow. Looking at it, Leith felt oddly... soothed. He felt his own breathing slow, perhaps because he knew this whole ordeal wasn’t just about to be solved but solved peacefully to boot. As the glow intensified, Leith didn’t know how, but he knew the cabin crew would awaken, safely put down the plane, and Leith could take a nice long nap to de-stress. Heck, why wait? Now seemed like a good time...

... _Thud._

* * *

“Attention, passengers: we’ve made a successful emergency landing in Haneda Airport. At this time, if you are seated near an emergency exit, please follow the written instructions to open it. An evacuation slide will deploy. Please proceed in a calm and orderly fashion...” 

Leith was still dazed and confused as he just began to stir from his place in his earlier seat. Contrary to instruction, the other passengers had all stood up and were pushing and shoving in quite an uncalm, disorderly fashion. With a start, the boy figured he’d better do the same.

* * *

It was an ordeal from then on. Passengers and crew couldn’t leave the runway until they were offered medical attention and interviewed by not just first responders but also some airline officials, port officials, and the press (the latter of which Leith firmly declined). As the souls clogged up the tarmac, Leith’s pulse couldn’t slow, and not just because he’d slept through a near plane crash but also because, for him, the ideal wasn’t over. 

“I don’t understand what happened. It was a long flight, so I slept through part of it. When I woke up we were evacuating.” None of these things were lies, but it was a conscious lie of omission to present that as his entire story, especially to law enforcement. Yes, they had questions themselves; there was, after all, a cockpit breached by explosion. But who could doubt Leith? Most every other soul on board probably told about the same tale. He was convinced the story was believable. 

_But it’s not verifiable,_ and similar such thoughts haunted him during the family’s taxi ride to their new home. _What if some third person saw me and sang about it? What if_ Toshi _slipped up? Hell, what did the crew see? I missed the most important part! I’d ask that thing, but..._ As far as he knew, Commandramon had disappeared. Leith didn’t pick up any talk about the odd creatures or answer any questions about them. Naturally, he didn’t volunteer the testimony either. _Could the black box- oh, god, the black box! We were in the cockpit!_ Leith knew full well that a plane’s black box recorded voices. _Like they’ll just glance right over that!_

“Who are you texting?” Leith’s mother asked him that when she peered over at him from the seat beside him in the taxi. “It’s expensive to text outside the country that much.” 

Leith didn’t need to lie, but he also didn’t want her to inquire too closely. “Actually, think I made a new friend already. That guy I bumped into was an exchange student in California coming home. Might have found a Japanese tutor at the same time, too!” Again, Leith consciously omitted something: the reason they had exchanged numbers in the first place was really to discuss what only they knew. For Leith, to have someone say they saw all the same wacky visions that he had. _Then again... I’d better tell Riham I’m OK. I mean, I’m_ not _, but I should tell her that._

Even during the middle of the day, downtown was vibrantly lit and busy. Leith tried to take in his beautiful passing surroundings, but the bright sun of a clear day didn’t agree with him while he was experiencing the weirdest case of jet lag of all time. Too bad it looked like he would have to wait several hours more before he could (voluntarily) sleep on his experience. _I kind of expected it to be a transition, but this is ridiculous. Feels more like I stepped into another world._

As the vehicle carried him on and the sinking feeling in the boy’s gut steadily got heavier, he let out a tired sigh that he didn’t bother to disguise. He facetiously bade himself, _Welcome to Tokyo._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [1] Pillomon


End file.
